Remembrance
by thecrazygirlsnextdoor
Summary: Captain Hitsugaya is captured by Aizen. When he escapes, will Soul Society welcome him back? With Aizen's new scheme, will he destroy Soul Society, or save it, and what does this new girl have to do with it? Bad summary, sorry. More friendship than romance.
1. Chapter 1

Hello, this is CG1. This is my first fanfic, so as usual, please no flames. Enjoy!

******* Chapter 1: Prologue

His lieutenant was once again out shopping, wasting the free time they had on this mission to the real world. The rest of the advanced squad sent to Karakura was either with her or out patrolling. At least he hoped they were.

While Rangiku was out wasting time, the young captain was, in his mind, doing something productive, typing yet. another report on his phone. The young captain had wandered over to his favorite spot on the hill to watch the sunset after school that day. The beeping of the phone the only thing disturbing the silence.

The white haired shinigami hit the send button to deliver his latest report to Soul Society and just flipped his cell phone close when the sun suddenly appeared to rip in half and a black, eye-shaped hole opened right in front of Toshiro.

He had just enough time swallow his soul candy and slip out of his gigai when two forms sped out of the garganta. The two forms were women. Both wearing white outfits with partial bone masks on their heads; arrancars.

They each grabbed one of his arms and pulled them to his sides just as he was drawing Hyourinmaru from its sheath on his back. His reflexes dulled due to the limiter placed on him.

A third woman, with long straight dark hair and long sleeves that covered her hands, shot out of the garganta. She rushed straight for Hitsugaya and stabbed him in the stomach with a slender, white sai.

The pain increased as the woman who stabbed him twisted her weapon in him. His eyes wide with pain, fell to his knees as he coughed up blood, more pooling between his knees.

With his arms still restrained, the young captain looked up to see the third woman step aside to reveal another enemy standing at the entrance to the garganta. Short blond hair crowned her head, and a high collar covered her lower facial features.

"Well done, Apache, Mila Rose, Sun-Sun," the new woman said to her comrades walking forward. The look in her eyes and the way she held herself made it clear that she was the leader of this group.

"Jeez, this was way too easy. I thought he would be tougher than this," complained one girl with a horn on her head.

"Obviously, Apache. Your job was the easiest. Even an idiot can hold onto an arm," said the arrancar that covered her mouth. She had moved around behind the kneeling captain.

"WHAT? I had the easy job? All you had to do was stab him while Mila Rose and I held him still! We actually had to catch-"

"Enough," the blonde ordered as she stopped in front of Hitsugaya.

"Hai, Harribel-sama," the three said in unison, bowing their heads.

Hitsugaya looked up at newest arrancar, anger and humiliation at being taken down so easily evident in his eyes.

"Are you Toshiro Hitsugaya, captain of Squad Ten?" she asked to her captive.

"Why the hell do you want to know?" the captain spat. The wounds in his stomach made it painful to breathe, let alone talk, but he let none of it show on his face.

"Lord Aizen wishes to see you," she replied bluntly.

"Wha-," his reply was cut off by his hair being grabbed from behind and his head yanked to the side to expose his neck. The blond arrancar poked a needle into the large, exposed vein and injected what he could only assume to be a anesthetic.

The world started to fade to black as he felt himself being dragged to the waiting garganta.


	2. Chapter 2

CG1: Hooray! There were reviews! Oh, and i forgot last time: I do not own bleach nor am i making any profit from this. On with the story, enjoy!

******Chapter 2:

The long black tunnel stretched before his eyes. The only light there was what was produced under his feet as he moved the spirit particles to form a rugged path.

There was no light before him, just an endless streak of darkness. But there was no turning back. All that waited for him back there was pain. And he refused to go back to that hell.

He looked back and was greeted by the sight of the two that had originally dragged him to that place. One was practically screaming at the other to hurry up and cursing the white haired boy in front of them that had escaped their watch.

Suddenly, a third pursuer appeared along the other two gasping for breath.

"Got it," the new arrival with long wavy hair said to her companions, holding a small black box with a single button on it.

"Good, Mila Rose. Now we can catch that little bastard and bring him back to Harribel-sama," the arrancar with the horn on her head practically growled.

"Now all we have to do is get in range," the third one, Sun-sun finished.

The three Fracions put on a burst of speed, determined not to disappoint their leader.

'Shit,' the white haired boy thought as he glanced back to see that Mila Rose had returned with the box earlier than he had expected.

"Do it now!" Apache yelled to Mila Rose.

The three watched as their target fell to his knees and clutch the black collar circling his neck.

As Mila Rose pressed the button, electric currents coursed painfully through his body, temporarily stunning the boy.

Toshiro stood up as the pain lessened and he released a burst of ice back towards his pursuers. He too put on a burst of speed as he realized how close the arrancars had gotten when they had stunned him.

His teal eyes widened as he at last saw the door to his long sought after freedom. He raced toward the ever growing light ahead of him, leaving the weaker arrancars far behind him.

He burst through the exit of the garanta into the world of the living with a chorus of yelling behind him.

* * *

The world that greeted him was almost as dark as the tunnel he had just escaped. He glanced around to see he was floating above the trees of a large park with the glow of city lights off to the side.

'I need to find some place to hide before those three idiots get out of the garganta,' Toshiro thought as jumped to the ground of the park.

He wandered off through the trees trying to locate any close-by shinigami patrolling the area or any reiatsu he recognized.

Just then, a reiatsu flared behind him, and he jumped into the air to avoid having his head chopped open by a zanpakutou.

He looked at the boy who just attacked him. A teenage boy in shinigami robes with orange, spiky hair and large, gray eyes greeted him with a katana pointed straight at his chest.

"Who the hell are you?" he yelled at the white haired shinigami floating across from him.

"Is your name Kurosaki?" Toshiro questioned calmly.

The boy's eyes widened in surprise at the question, but hardened again as his grip on the katana tightened, "How do you know that?"

Toshiro let his katana drop to his side and lifted his free hand in a friendly gesture.

"Look, I know your dad. Where is he?"

"Yeah right. My dad doesn't know any arrancars!" he yelled as he charged foward, his zanpaktou in front of him.

"What?" Toshiro said as he parried the attack. "How do I look like an arrancar?" The two crossed blades and Toshiro pushed the attacking teenager back to create some space.

"White clothes, a zanpakutou but not a shinigami, and you came out of a garganta. That says 'Arancar' to me."

He charged again, yelling this time. He disappeared a couple of yards away from the white haired teenager. Toshiro turned and blocked the attack from his left. He jumped back again, not attacking.

'Damn. I don't want to fight him, but he's just as stubborn and idiotic as his dad.' he scowled, trying to figure out a way to convince this guy that he wasn't an enemy.

"I'm not an Arrancar. I'm a shinigami. My name is Toshirou Hitsugaya."

"I know all the high ranking officers, and you're not one of them."

Toshiro finally had enough and was about to knock some sense into this idiotic teen when he heard a voice behind him.

"Hey, Toshiro."

Said shinigami turned and saw the substitute shinigami. He looked almost the same as he did but with twenty years added to his face and some extra pounds of muscles.

"Kurosaki," he nodded to the new arrival.

"Long time, no see. Twenty years, right?" he said as he approached Toshiro. "Thanks for not killing my son," he continued when the other remained silent.

"Dad? what are you doing here? It's my night to patrol," the young Kurosaki demanded of his father, who was casually approaching what he thought was a dangerous enemy.

"Can you still not tell the difference between an arrancar and a shinigami?" his son just scowled. Ichigo sighed and continued, "You can't even tell he could kill you in no time at all."

Juuroku huffed in disbelief. "Besides, your mother insisted on seeing if Toshirou was really here."

Just then the three heard, "Toshiro-san!" shouted from the ground.

They all looked down to see a woman with long orange hair waving up to them.

"Toshiro-san!" she yelled again as she ran up and pulled the unfortunate shortie into a bear hug when the shinigami landed on the ground.

Releasing him from the hug, but keeping him at arm's length, she smiled and said, "It's good to see you again."

"It's good to see you, too, Inoue-san," he replied as he stepped out from under her hands.

"Actually, it's Kurosaki now," she said holding up her left hand and showing him the small diamond ring on it.

"Congratulations."

"Yep. It's been fifteen years, but...OhMyGoodness, Toshiro-san!" she gasped as she covered her mouth with her hands and her eyes got wide.

"What?" he said turning his head toward her again.

"You've grown!" holding up her hand to show his new height.

A throbbing vein appeared on the back of his head while Ichigo and his son just sweat dropped.

Taking a deep breath and counting silently to ten Toshiro thought, 'Calm down, it's Orihime.'

"We should get back to the house," Ichigo cut in before his wife said anything else that might cause the young shinigami to go off.

"Ok!" Orihime said while Toshiro just nodded in agreement. Juuroku followed silently, shaking his head, still not clear on how this new guy knew his parents

* * *

The Kurosaki's house looked just like any other house. The first floor had a living room that held a wide screen T.V. against the wall with a couch directly in front of it. Juuroku promptly sat down on the couch when they arrived.

The rest settled at the table in the kitchen. It had a white tiled floor and normal kitchen appliances. However, there were very odd foods piled together on the counter tops. Toshiro contributed it to Orihime's 'different' cooking style.

When the three were seated at the table and Orihime poured steaming cups of tea for them, Ichigo began, "I guess you want to know what has happened during the last twenty years, right?" Toshiro acknowledge the question with a nod. "Well," he continued, leaning back in his chair and rubbing the back of his head with his hand, "after you were taken, Aizen just disappeared. The only thing that we saw of him was when he sent the occasional arrancar to attack."

"We wanted to put together a rescue squad, but Yamamoto-san ordered us not to," Orihime chided in.

"I never expected him to. It would have been stupid to send a squad into unknown territory," Toshiro said as he sipped his tea. Actually, he was suprised that Yamamoto had not thought that he had betrayed Soul Society and ordered everyone to execute him on sigth. the tea helped to calm his nerves after his escape, but he knew that Aizen and his minions might figure out his location at any time.

"Rangiku-chan really wanted to go after you, but she knew you would have wanted her to follow orders," she continued seeing how the twenty years of imprisonment had changed the look in his eyes.

The usually strong gaze now just seemed to hold an on-edge look; like even a small disturbance could make him draw his sword and be ready to fight to the death. His eyes were rimmed with dark circles, and she also noticed one very slight tremor in his hand as he reached for his tea.

"We should probably get that thing on your neck off," Ichigo said after a few seconds of silence. "But I'm guessing we can't just cut it off." Surprisingly, it seemed that Ichigo had gotten a little smarter after twenty years.

"You're right. I tried that once and ended up in a hospital bed for two weeks," Toshiro replied. "So do you have any ideas?"

"Yeah, we have just the person to take care of it," said Orihime smiling at him. He started to get a bad feeling about what was coming next.

Ichigo turned his head towards the stairs leading up to the second floor and hollered, "Yuukiko! Come down here!"

A door opened part way down the hall, and a young girl came down the steps and stopped in front of the table. The girl had long orange hair, consistent with her parents' and brother's color, in a braid down her back. She could have been a mini Orihime with wide doe like gray eyes and a kind smile. She was wearing a plain, white T-shirt and gray denim shorts.

"Toshiro-san, this is our daughter, Karihime," Orihime told her guest while pointing her hand toward her daughter. "Kari, this is Toshiro Hitsugaya."

Kari bowed politely to the new guest, "Good evening, Hitsugaya-san."

"Hello," he replied shortly.

"Kari, where's Yuukiko? She needs to come down too," Ichigo questioned his daughter.

"Um, you see, she's working on something...um... delicate right now. So she can't come down," she said tapping the tips of her pointer fingers together and smiling sheepishly at her father.

The smile turned to a grimace as an explosion that was loud enough to have Toshiro lunging for his katana propped up against the table beside him sounded.

The other three Kurosakis looked completely unfazed by it. "Do I need to be concerned?" Ichigo, the ever loving and concerned parent, asked Kari.

"I don't think so," she replied. "I'll be right back," she said and started to run back up the stairs.

She was stopped half way up the stairs by the door she came out of bursting open, smoke pouring out and a figure stumbling out of it. The figure straightened and yelled, "Who the hell ruined my experiment!"

"And this, Toshiro," Ichigo said, "is our other daughter, Yuukiko."

Yuukiko came stomping down the stairs looking furious. "Why didn't anyone tell me that some newbie was here that was going to ruin my barrier!" By that time, she had reached the table and had stopped in front of the 'newbie' with her hands on her hips. Toshiro could now see that this girl had the same orange hair as the rest of her family but kept it short so that it spiked in the back with bangs that framed her eyes. However, she looked more like her dad but with some gray mixed in with the brown in her eyes. She too was wearing a plain white T-shirt but it had soot in a burst pattern in the middle of it. Her pants were black capri cargo pants with what looked like small tool handles sticking out of the top of the multiple pockets.

'These two must be twins,' thought Toshiro since both of them looked to be around thirteen.

"You know what," Yuukiko said poking Toshiro in the chest and getting right up in his face, "you completely ruined my experiment! I'm going to have to start from scratch!"

Toshiro, not liking being poked in the chest and a girl getting in his face and yelling at him, replied, "How is it my fault? I didn't even come close to your experiment."

"You ruined the barrier I put around it to protect it, that's what!" the new twin said continuing to poke him in the chest. "I specifically designed it to block out any shinigami's reiatsu that I knew of to keep it from blowing up."

"Maybe you should have had a barrier that blocks all reiatsu," he grabbed the hand that was poking him and pushed it away from him. Yuukiko just leaned back and crossed her arms across her chest.

"I couldn't. It needs some reiatsu to work, but any unfamiliar reiatsu would cause it to become unstable."

"Yuukiko, it's not his fault, nobody else besides us knew how delicate the process was," the reasonable twin cut in. "Anyway, you can just rebuild it."

"You know how long it took me just to get this far! Two weeks. Two whole weeks!" She rounded on her sister holding two fingers up to emphasize her point.

"Get over it, Kiko," Ichigo stepped in before a yelling match could get started. "Besides you have a new project," he told his hot-headed daughter.

Thank you to all who reviewed, faved, and alerted this. Hope this was a better length, and sorry if anybody wanted scenes from his imprisonment. That's later on, so i guess you'll just have to keep reading. :)

"And what would that be," Yuukiko said turning to where her father was seated and recrossing her arms.

"Getting that thing off of Toshiro here," he said gesturing to the black collar around Toshiro's neck.

She turned toward the whitey and grabbed the collar between her thumb and forefinger forcing his head up in the process.

She leaned in and examined it and said, "I'll see what I can do."


	3. Chapter 3

******Chapter 3:

"But wait, who exactly is this again?" Yuukiko asked, straightening up and turning to her father with a quizzical look.

"This is the former captain of Squad Ten, Toshiro Hitsugaya," Ichigo informed his daughters. Silence suddenly pervaded the house as all three of the children stared at their father with wide, surprised eyes.

Then Toshiro had two faces just inches from his own as they asked "Really?" Inside his head a little monitor read "Personal Space: Status: INVADED" in bright blinking red letters.

He nearly tipped over backward trying to lean away from them. Even Juuroku had pried his eyes away from the T.V. to look at the guest.

"Ya. Now I see it. White hair, icy reiatsu... short," Yuukiko said circling behind him and examining. However, she had said the word forbidden around Toshiro.

"Who are you calling short!" the whitey said jumping out of his chair to face the short-haired girl. His fists were clenched and he was giving her one of his infamous glares.

Unfazed Kiko replied, "Obviously, you." Toshiro's glare just hardened even more.

"Oh, don't worry, he's grown!" Orihime, oblivious as always, butted in with a happy grin. All eyes in the room turned towards her; the shortie's angry, the kids' quizzical, and Ichigo's exasperated. And then, Yuukiko fell to the floor clutching her stomach and laughing her head off. Even the nice twin was giggling into her hand.

"HAHAHA! Oh, Mom. You crack me up," Yuukiko said gasping and getting up off the floor and wiping the tears from her eyes.

"Anyway, *chuckle* we'll get right on it, Dad," Karihime grabbed her still lightly laughing twin and started tugging her back up the stairs, motioning their guest to follow.

Toshiro hesitated, not liking the thought of being alone with two people he classified as insane. One for being the way she was, and one for willingly going along with the other. He shot a glance at Ichigo.

"They haven't killed anyone, yet," he said shrugging

The twins' room did nothing to ease his mind. It had two Murphy beds currently folded up into the wall, a long counter that took up the length of a wall, and a window with its curtains drawn closed, Papers and mechanical parts littered the top of the counter and what looked like a fresh scorch mark marred the surface of it. What really worried Hitsugaya were the multiple fire extinguishers scattered underneath the counter. One even had its own little corner marked off by tape on the counter.

Three signs hung above the counter. One read, "Karihime has had no accidents in: 85 days." It was decorated with a blue ribbon. Another one said, "Yuukiko has had no accidents in: 7 days." Hitsugaya's confidence was not raised in the girl who would soon be messing with a very painful device on him. The last sign on the wall had "accidents this month: 2" written on it. Toshiro was reassured a little.

A sticky note underneath the last sign said, "First one to 100 days wins a raise in equipment allowance!"

'Guess we know who's winning that one,' he thought to himself.

Two swivel stools sat along the counter, one of which Yuukiko immediately plopped down on.

"Take a seat, new guy," Kiko ordered. "Kari, can you run a quick scan?" She began clearing the scorched area of the counter and carried the broken pieces over to a bucket by the door. The other twin approached Hitsugaya with a small device with a screen on it.

"Please lift your chin, Hitsugaya-san, so I can get a good scan of … whatever that is," He complied but with some hesitance. "Don't worry, it's completely safe. I'm just seeing how much is mechanical, how much is kido, and hopefully a basic sketch of it before we do anything, so we don't go in completely blind," Kari kindly explained smiling at him.

He complied and a small green light ran over the device. Karihime circled around him keeping the light steady. After finishing the circuit, a small beep sounded from the device, and the timid twin studied the readouts on the device in her hands.

While she was doing that, Toshiro turned to see that the other twin had gotten up and crossed the room to examine one of the several designs of what could best be described as… things that were hung up on the walls. She took a pencil out of one of the many pockets and scribbled on the plans. Karihime also got up and joined her sister. They started whispering and making small changes to the designs.

A few minutes passed as Toshiro continued to stare at their backs and trying to catch the snatches he could hear of their conversation. His patience wore thin, so he cleared his throat in a non-inconspicuous manner.

"Oh, right." Both girls turned and walked back to him.

Yuukiko grabbed the scanner and started her own study of it. Karihime meanwhile put some tools on the table in between her sister and their guest.

"Diagnostic, Kari?" Yuukiko asked her sister.

"A hinged, two-piece device that appears to be seamless with a strong, reiatsu suppressing kido engineered in it somewhere. Other than that, I can't tell you much."

"Yeah, that's what I got, too."

"What does that mean?" Toshiro asked the two girls.

"Basically, we have absolutely no clue about anything in that collar," Yuukiko informed him.

"Then this is pointless," Toshiro looked down dejected. 'I'll just have to wait until I get back to Soul Society.'

"Not necessarily," Yuukiko interjected into his thoughts. "Just because we don't know about something, doesn't mean we can't handle it," confidence rang through her voice and the look in her eyes.

"Just tell us what you know about it," Karihime asked gently.

"It has a remote activated electrical charge strong enough to knock me out. And it has an explosive feature if someone tries to forcibly remove it," he explained.

"Lethal?"

"No, but I was in a bed for two weeks after I tried."

Yuukiko turned to her twin, "How did we miss an explosive feature?" she just shrugged. "Remind me to update that thing later."

"Right." Karihime handed her a pair of magnifying goggles as Yuukiko picked a few tools out of her many pockets.

"Now its important you stay still for this part," Yuukiko instructed the whitey, "don't want that safety feature activated by accident." Toshiro tensed in anxiety as she moved closer with the small tools.

~Downstairs with Ichigo~

"It's great to see Toshiro-san again, don't you think?" Orihime asked her husband who was still at the dining room table as she was cleaning the tea dishes in the kitchen.

"Yeah," he responded absentmindedly. "I want to know how he escaped. Especially after twenty years."

"You mean, you're wondering if he escaped, or if he was let go," his son piped in from the couch.

Ichigo sent a glare over in his son's direction.

"It's possible, Dad," Juuroku defended. "Aizen could have sent him here to spy on us and get into Soul Society easily." He had turned to face his father's glare. Anger was evident in his gaze. "It's obvious that you know that. The only thing that kept you from calling Soul Society right away is that they might not want a potential threat in the Seireitei and kill him. You just don't want your old friend to be killed."

The two men glared at each other with tension rising between them.

"You're right," Orihime's calm voice breaking the silence "he is an old friend, and we don't just leave old friends out in harm's way, whether the harm be from Hueco Mundo or Soul Society. There's a chance that he is a spy, but there is also the chance that he is telling the truth and just escaped enemy clutches. You might not know and trust Hitsugaya, but we do, and we're willing to take the chance."

Juuroku looked down, ashamed that he hadn't trust his parents decision. Now that he thought of it, Ichigo was entirely too overprotective of his daughters, and there was no way he would leave a potential threat alone with them for a second.

"Sorry," he mumbled. It wasn't often that his mother had to lecture him with that serious of a tone.

"It's alright. You have a good point," Ichigo told him. "But-"

He was cut off by an alarm next to the T.V. going off, followed by the familiar feel of Arancars' reiatsu.

~Back Upstairs~

A small panel of the Hitsugaya's collar had been removed, and the goggled girl was poking through the exposed circuitry.

"This might hurt a little," Yuukiko warned as she gingerly touched one of the tools to an exposed wire.

Toshiro's whole body tensed up as electricity shot from the collar.

"Sorry," Yuukiko removed the tool. "Note to self: don't mess with the red wire." This was only the second time the twin had set off the collar's security measure. After the first time, she put on a pair of non conductive gloves.

He had to admit that the two had an efficient working method. Yuukiko poked the collar while Karihime handed her various tools. It was almost telepathic since Yuukiko practically never said what tool she needed.

"Wait a minute..." Yuukiko muttered as she leaned in to get an even closer look, "is that..."

An alarm on the wall going off made the short-haired twin jump and accidentally touch the red wire again.

"Oww-" Toshiro began but was cut off.

"Get down!" Yuukiko shouted in a hushed tone, shoving him off the chair and to the floor.

Karihime ran to the door. Fear widening both girls' eyes. "Dad!" she yelled downstairs. Her voice full of urgency.

"Just stay up there," he yelled from downstairs. "Get out of sight, and get that thing off Toshiro!"

Returning to the two on the floor, "Kiko-"

"Yeah, I heard," already back at work on the device.

"What's going on?" Toshiro demanded of the long-haired twin.

"That alarm goes off whenever a high-level hollow, arrancar, or spirit is near the house." Kari explained.

"Shi-" Toshiro jumped up and reached for his zanpakuto.

"Stay still!" Yuukiko ordered, grabbing him and forcing him back to the floor.

"It's ok," Karihime stated, "There's a barrier around the house and the ones next to us. It blocks all reiatsu signatures from being detected.

But not from us being spotted through the windows," she pointed to the window with the curtains up, facing the street outside.

"As long as they don't see you, since I'm pretty sure you're the one they're after," Yuukiko chimed in, "or decide to blow up all the houses in the barrier, we are safe."

~Outside~

"Let's just blow up all the houses in the barrier," Apache suggested. She looked over at Harribel who was studying the houses across the street. To the number 3 espada's left stood a man with unkempt, shoulder length hair and a mask of a lower jaw hanging around his neck. The three female Fracciones stood slightly behind their commander, awaiting orders.

"I don't know," the man sighed. "It seems like a waste of energy." Stark turned to the blond woman next to him. "What do you think?"

"Aizen-sama instructed us to keep a low profile, but..." she reached behind her and drew her zanpakuto. It was short but wide and, strangely, the middle section of it was missing. A bright, yellow light formed in the middle of the strange zanpakuto, growing until it filled the entire hollow space of the weapon. "Hitsugaya! Show yourself in three seconds or I will kill every human in this barrier!" she shouted. Silence followed her demand.

As nothing stirred on the darkened street, the blond raised her arm, "Very well," she said and swung her sword. The deadly light racing toward the houses.

* * *

Hi. Yes, I'm still alive and haven't given up this story. Time got away. I'm sure you've heard all the excuses, so sorry if you were waiting for this.

Thank you to all who reviewed. Special shout out to Fanaticreviewer for the awesome review!

Hope you enjoyed the chapter.


End file.
